Nakamura Also Beats Caruana, Leads at Tal Memorial

Hikaru Nakamura scored his third straight win at the Tal Memorial to become the sole leader after four rounds. On Monday he beat Fabiano Caruana from the black side of a Sicilian Najdorf. Because Andreikin-Carlsen, Anand-Gelfand, Morozevich-Kramnik and Karjakin-Mamedyarov were all draws, the American grandmaster is now half a point ahead of Gelfand and Mamedyarov.

When Nakamura finished explaining his victory over Caruana to the Russian spectators, a journalist asked him about his new second, the Israeli grandmaster Arthur Kogan. The reporter remarked that he had seen Kogan during the first round, but not since. Nakamura, realizing the pattern, smiled and replied:

"He actually decided not to come to the second round. I don't know why this was; maybe he wanted to change luck or something. It seems to be working."

Nakamura at the press conference | Image Chess.TV

It's definitely working! After losing his first game, Nakamura won three good games in a row against the #3, #4 and #8 of the current live rankings where, because of his loss, Caruana dropped back from #3 to #4 again, behind Kramnik.

Nakamura chose the Sicilian Najdorf because "Fabiano lost about four or five games in a row against the Najdorf". It was clear that the American knew exactly what he was doing, while Caruana was struggling. The Italian couldn't find good squares for his pieces and also used too much time on the clock. With about five minutes for his last twelve moves, things went from bad to worse.

Shakhriyar Mamedyarov was one of the other players with two points. The Azeri drew an amazing Pirc Defence with Sergey Karjakin after playing a pawn sacrfice that "looked like it could have been played by a 1300 player", as IM Lawrence Trent put, it during the Chess.com/TV live show! The sequence ...c5, dxc5 ...Nbd7!? definitely belongs to the "don't try this at home" category, as Black leaves himself with a backward, isolated d-pawn. On top of that, Mamedyarov duly sac'ed another pawn right after! The game is a really nice example of the chess term "compensation".

The Scotch Four Knights is quite fashionable, basically since Vladimir Kramnik introduced the subtle 10.h3 exactly one year ago at the same tournament, against Levon Aronian. In today's round the 14th World Champion faced this opening with Black, but Alexander Morozevich preferred the more traditional 10.Bg5. After a series of exchanges, White kept a slight edge, but with his queen behind the rook Kramnik could create just enough counterplay.

Viswanathan Anand and Boris Gelfand played many Rossolimo Sicilians last year in their World Championship match, and they added one more today. Thanks to his queenside majority White was slightly better in the ending, but trading the black-squared bishops was a "mistake" according to Anand. After that, Black didn't have much to worry about.

Magnus Carlsen drew his black game with Dmitry Andreikin in a Symmetrical English. At the press conference the players only looked at the opening phase, which was very interesting indeed. Even though it threatened mate in one, White's 8th move might not have been the best in the position but Andreikin had missed 9...Bxb5! which solved most of the problems for Black.

Nakamura tops the standings with 3/4, followed by Gelfand and Mamedyarov on 2.5/4. Kramnik is still last, with 1/4. Right after his opponent in last year's match, the World Champion will face his opponent in the next title match tomorrow: in round 5 it's Carlsen-Anand!

Goes to show that any top GM can beat any other top GM. Andreikin has been solid, though not brilliant, if he can rack at least 2 wins he can secure top 3 at least. Carlsen, well maybe he is tired, and he ain't playing no slouches, if you aren't on your A game you ain't gonna win no Cat 20 tournament. Naka is at his creative best... how does he do it?

Balachandar: In that ending white cannot win because there is no avenue that he can use to break into black`s position. Black has all the entry points covered and will just keep on moving his Bishop to b8, c7, d6...

We're told that in a same coloured bishops ending, your pawns should be on the opposite colour squares of your bishop. Still it's surprising that Carlsen's game is a draw, where all his pawns are on dark squares and all of white's pawns are on light squares.

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